


Christopher Diaz's Three Stage Plan

by matan4il



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Chris pulls a parent trap, Christopher Diaz Saves the Day (9-1-1 TV), Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz First Kiss, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:34:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29435415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matan4il/pseuds/matan4il
Summary: Chris is the little genius that Buck and Eddie don't deserve, but desperately need.One of Christopher's teachers told him once that the first step to figuring out how to get to your destination is knowing where you want to go. That's why he begins Operation Dad Smile by watching carefully to figure out how to get to his goal. What makes his dad happiest?
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 96
Kudos: 534





	Christopher Diaz's Three Stage Plan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [adamngoodbatch (sibbed)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sibbed/gifts).



> Thank you so much to the incredible [Toughpaperround](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToughPaperRound/pseuds/ToughPaperRound) for the amazing beta work. Dedicated to my darling [Deb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sibbed/pseuds/adamngoodbatch), who constantly inspires me to write fics like this one. Also big thank you to my lovelies [Sif](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainSif/pseuds/CaptainSif) and [Cath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buckdiaz/pseuds/buckdiaz) who helped me so much while writing this!
> 
> **Happy Valentine's Day** to all those who celebrate it and lots of love to every single one of you beautiful humans out there, reading this fic. Thank you for making it a part of your day!

  
  


Christopher isn't Superman, despite his dad's nickname for him, but he's pretty sure that he's the next best thing. Because he has determination and faith in his ability to succeed when things really matter to him. 

He does, even though he'd fallen off that skateboard in the schoolyard, when he tried to balance himself on it. The scratches weren't too bad, but it hurt to know he couldn't do everything, unlike what Dad had told him. For a few days following that, he was a mix of scared, angry and sad. But then his father, who was the next best thing to a superhero as well, confessed he couldn't do everything either. And then Dad asked him to do all new things together, at least for the time being, basically promising that he would be there. Then Buck came along with a special skateboard that Chris could better balance on, while both men rolled him around. Even when things seemed lost, he got to skate after all. 

So he pays attention and he learns, another reason why he's pretty close to a real life superhero. Christopher learned from this that you actually can succeed at everything, but only if you have the help and support of the people who love you. People who will hold you up after you've fallen down, who will tell you the truth and find a way to change it for the better, who will invest of themselves so that your problems can be solved... 

People who succeed at everything do so because they're not alone. 

And Chris thinks that if that's the case, then maybe it's about time his father stopped being alone. 

Dad loved Mom, that was obvious. For a really long time, he cried just from thinking of her every night, alone in his room. He must have thought that Christopher was asleep. In the morning, the tears were always gone, only hugs remained, and big smiles, but those were also underlined by sadness, right below the surface. 

After a while, Dad stopped crying, but he remained alone in his room every night. Unlike other parents who occasionally went out. His smile stayed sad in the corners of his eyes. 

Lucky for him, he has a son who isn't a superhero, but is still going to fix this. 

One of Christopher's teachers told him once that the first step to figuring out how to get to your destination is knowing where you want to go. That's why he begins Operation Dad Smile by watching carefully to figure out how to get to his goal. What makes his dad happiest? When is the sad shadow smallest? 

It doesn't take long for Chris to realize it's not a 'what,' it's a 'who.' The main times when the shadows shrink away is in the presence of the big goofy ball of sunshine that is Buck. 

In a way, Christopher probably knew that already. Outside of Dad, Buck made him the happiest, too. But sometimes a kid needs a detailed secret operation in order to put a feeling like that into words. The important part, however, is making sense of what it means for his father. After all, Dad already has Buck, so how can that be the solution? Unless... it must mean there's another level to their relationship they haven't reached yet. If other parents go out and have fun together from time to time, it's because they're couples who love each other. Alright, then that's what Buck and Dad need to be. 

Operation Dad Smile stage 1 is complete, target achieved. Time for stage 2. 

Planning. 

This one is a little trickier, because there are so many options. Chris studies the best detective books in his and the school's library, to see how those people constructed their plans when they needed one, but he comes up empty. Luckily, Carla is there and she's smarter than most of those detectives anyway. 

"Alright, sweetpea, your schnitzel and salad is ready for you to devour," she announces joyfully. 

"Carla, how did you and your husband become a couple?" 

"Aawww, sugar. You sure you want to hear such a bor..." she stops herself and is giving him that look which says, 'right, he lost his mom.' Do other kids ask their mothers this question about how their parents got together? Maybe one day Chris will ask his dad about it. For now, he's simply grateful that she has cut off the question and is sitting down next to him by the table. 

"Alright. But you tell me if you're too bored at any point. Well," she smiles, picking up her mug of coffee, her eyes softening as they hone in on some random spot on the wall. "We went to the same high school. I used to see him around and he was so tall and handsome, that whenever I did, I would just..." 

"Smile?" 

Carla raises her eyebrows in approving surprise. "Yes, but don't tell him that. I hid it pretty well. In fact, I was hiding it so well, he wasn't even sure if I would like him and say yes if he asked me out. So one day, in the hallway, he comes up to me with a note. It had one question in it, 'Do you like me?' and three check boxes, yes, no or maybe." 

"In high school? Weren't you a bit too old for that?" 

Carla laughs. "We were. Even worse, he was doing it all wrong, he gave it to me and stood there, watching me read it and waiting for a reply." 

Chris grabs his head with his hands, shaking it. Then he lowers them and looks at her curiously. "What did you say?" 

She shakes her head. "I said yes, of course. I did like him. Besides, he was so obviously clueless, somebody had to protect him from himself." 

When she smiles at the end of that statement, Christopher is sure that she doesn't mind it. On the contrary, she seems happy to be that person. 

That makes both of them happy, because Chris finally has a lead on how to proceed with stage 2 of the operation. No, he can't use a note, like Carla's husband did. But he was listening and he noticed the important things he could now incorporate into the plan he was forming. He could now proceed to stage 3. 

Execution. 

Which of course would have to be broken down into sub-stages. 

Christopher lays down his pencil over his notebook and observes Dad's back while he's changing a light bulb. It's time for the first one. 

"Dad, I need your help with something..." 

"Is it your science homework?" he asks, not taking his eyes off the light bulb. "I thought Carla helped you with that before she left..." 

"No, it's not that." 

That gets him to stop and turn to Chris. "What is it then?" 

"Can you help me write a letter... to a crush?" 

"Oh?" His father puts the bulb aside and comes to sit down by him. "You have a crush. Do I get to hear more details about this?" 

Christopher shrugs. "Not now. But if your letter is good and it works..." 

"That's not fair!" his dad protests. 

"That's incentive." Chris pushes a block of paper and a pen in his father's direction. 

Dad laughs and picks up the pen. "Alright, let's see. What do you like about your crush?" 

"Mmmm. I think it's cool, having a crush on a best friend." 

"Oh. How come I didn't know you had a 'best friend'?" 

Chris rolls his eyes. "Dad, we're not making any progress like this." 

"Fine, you're right. But after this letter works, I expect to hear more about this. So, you like your best friend and..." 

"If someone makes you happy when you're together... but you want to be an actual couple... how do you write that nicely?" 

"Okay, I got you, buddy," his dad replies confidently and starts scribbling across the paper, reading out what he's writing and explaining his choices with what he found worked with the girls he liked, back when he used to talk to them at school. Once in a while, he stops when Chris corrects him. 

"No, it's because a best friend cares about you so much..." 

"Got it," he crosses out a few words and replaces them with others. When they're done and Christopher is satisfied with the result, Dad copies everything neatly onto a new sheet of paper and leaves room at the bottom, just like he's asked to. 

"Thank you," Chris hugs his father and soaks in the little chuckle this gives rise to, the way the small, contained shake of his dad's chest reverberates throughout him. "But... can I ask for one more thing?" 

"Sure, mijo." 

"Don't tell anyone, especially not Buck, about this? I'm not ready for people to know." 

Dad opens his mouth like he's about to protest that there's nothing he doesn't share with Buck, but then appears to think better of it and simply nods. "Okay. You tell me when you are ready." 

Chris squeezes him once more, quickly, then he takes the letter and goes to his room, to put it somewhere safe. 

Stage 3.1? Complete. 

Stage 3.2 has to wait until he gets to spend an afternoon with Buck when Dad isn't around. 

"Hey bud, what's wrong?" 

It's been fifteen minutes of Chris watching the clock while he's beating Buck at this video game, waiting to make sure his father won't return home unexpectedly because he forgot something on his way to the store. When the coast was definitely clear, he put his console down. 

"Buck, I need your help," he says. 

"Sure thing, little man. What's it about?" 

"I need your help writing a letter to a crush..." 

Buck's even more enthusiastic about it than Dad, which surprisingly makes the task harder, because it proves more challenging to keep him on track, but eventually the second letter is composed as well, with a blank space left at the end, too. 

"And Buck?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Please don't tell anyone. Definitely not Dad. I don't think he's ready for me to have a crush." 

Buck chews on the corner of his lower lip for a moment, gaze unfocused, before he returns his gaze to Chris and replies. "Okay. But this is the only secret we keep from your dad, right?" 

"Unless it's a prank." 

Buck laughs wholeheartedly. "Unless it's a prank," he agrees and they pinky swear it. 

After stage 3.2 is done, that's when things get a bit annoying, because throwing these two off the scent requires time and patience. Chris told each of them separately that he's delivered the letter they've helped him write to its intended recipient. 

"And?" they both asked, with the exact same anxious tone and big, interested eyes. Honestly, sometimes Chris is overwhelmed by how they don't see that they fit together so perfectly. 

"It didn't work out." 

"I'm sorry, son," his dad said and hugged him. 

"Hey, it's their loss, okay?" Buck reassured him and followed it up with a hug as well. 

So once that was done, Chris just had to let some time pass. Two months go by until he decides that stage 3.3 can begin. 

Now, planting Buck's letter in dad's duffel bag wouldn't be too hard, but is that where a secret admirer would leave it? Chris doesn't think so. Plus, he has dad's letter that he needs to hide somewhere in Buck's things, too. It's why he clearly has to get to the fire station. The lockers there would be the perfect spot for his plan. 

He asks Carla one day if they can surprise his dad at the station. 

"Is this you trying to get out of doing your math homework?" she raises an eyebrow at him. If she crosses her arms as well, it's a lost cause. 

"No, I'll do them after we get back. I promise. I'll even do some extra." 

"Oh?" she frowns. They are both aware Chris would never offer to solve more math problems than he has to. 

He shrugs. "Dad looked sad this morning before he left. I wanted to cheer him up." 

Carla's expression softens. "Alright, no need for more math exercises than your teacher assigned you. But you better stick to your word and do your homework or those puppy dog eyes will never work on me again." 

They would, but he knows better than to point that out. "I'll take my textbook with me. If we have to wait for Dad, I'll get a head start." 

Carla nods with a hint of suspicion, but she isn't in Christopher's bedroom when he slips the two letters, pressed against each other, in between the pages of his textbook. 

Things go less smoothly at the station. Dad is there and he's paying Chris his undivided attention, especially after Carla mentioned his son wanted to cheer him up. The rest of the team are all hovering around them as well and no alarms go off to attract them away. Worst luck ever! Okay, maybe it's weird to call all these things bad, but as long as they prevent Christopher from getting to the lockers unseen, that's exactly what they are. 

He sighs. Preferably, he wants to do this while Dad and Buck are on a call, so there wouldn't be any chance of them catching him by the lockers. He has no choice but to let this visit go to waste, an awful turn of events considering this will make it harder to get here again in the near future. 

When Carla says it's time to leave, Chris has to battle himself to contain his disappointment. He says goodbye to everyone and down the stairs he goes with her. He takes every step with a heavy heart, especially as they near the locker room, as well as the exit. 

Then something flashes in his mind. Why didn't he remember this earlier? There's an internal door leading directly from the bathrooms to the locker room. He's never used it himself, but he has seen other firefighters use it once or twice. They're just past the main door to the bathroom already, when Chris calls out, "I have to take a pee!" and goes in as quickly as he can, ignoring Carla shouting after him that she should hold the math textbook for him. It's been tucked safely between his arm and torso during this entire visit. It slows Chris down on his crutches, but only slightly, and it proves to be so useful at this critical point, when he turns for the bathroom's internal door. 

He pushes it and is met with the familiar sight of long rows of lockers. Dad and Buck's aren't too far from each other and Christopher locates them quickly. He opens up the textbook and takes out the letters. The envelopes are dissimilar on purpose and he slips the white one into Dad's locker through the side crack and the blue one into Buck's. 

Then he makes his way back to Carla, who's stood outside the main bathroom door, arms crossed. Oh, no. 

"That math textbook is full of germs now and I'm not happy about it." 

"I'm sorry." 

"You're not getting out of doing your homework. And you will solve a few extra equations. After I dip that thing in alcohol," she declares as she gestures for them to head out. 

Worth it. 

He waits for things to play themselves out next. 

His dad wouldn't open the letter at work where anyone might read it. Buck might have, but the name on the envelope addresses it to Evan, so he won't either. It's waiting hours for Chris again and he's impatient about it. At the same time, a part of him is nervous enough about the whole plan failing that he'll gladly accept some delay. 

As it turns out, Dad gives himself away pretty quickly. 

Chris thought his father wouldn't want to have anything to do with the letter in his company anymore than at the station, so he expected reading it would have to wait until he was asleep. Instead, Dad kisses his forehead distractedly and almost immediately retreats into the bedroom with some lame excuse about a headache and the promise that he'll be right back for them to eat a small something for breakfast together. 

When he does come out of his room, he looks like his mind is somewhere else while only his body is present, going through the motions of sitting down to eat with Chris. 

"Is everything okay, Dad?" 

"Hmmm?" his father's eyes shift to him, but remain unfocused. "Oh, of course. There's just a... small matter at work that I have to settle." 

That ends up being the longest sentence Dad says during this breakfast. That evening, Buck comes over to hang out and loses repeatedly at Christopher's favorite video game. That's not unusual, but this time, it's because he's not even trying. He and Dad both seem awkward and scatterbrained. Then Buck apologizes and doesn't stay for beer. 

Chris is watching everything and reminding himself to breathe. He asked Carla to visit the station on purpose during a shift that would be followed by them having 96 hours off, to let them process things. But he didn't expect them to get all weird about it. He hopes his planning wasn't a mistake. He gave them time to digest the letter and then... 

"Meet me two days from now, at seven in the evening, at Echo Park Lake, by the benches behind the 'Lady of the Lake' statue, overlooking the fountain." 

Chris added that, printed at the bottom of each letter, before printing the names on each envelope and sealing the folded papers inside. But he was beginning to question his decisions and had no other option other than to follow their rendezvous. 

He went through Dad's closet once, not long after they had moved to L.A, and found the baby monitor that must have been used for Chris during his infancy. At the first chance that he gets, he goes into Dad's bedroom and pulls it out, testing the batteries. They seem good, but he'll take a couple of new ones with him, just in case. 

On the day of the set up date, Carla drops Chris off on the sidewalk in front of the house where one of his friends lives. She drives off before he goes in, which is how they usually do it when she takes him over for a visit with a friend. But today he waits until he can no longer see her car and then he walks over to the bus station. 

The drive to Echo Park Lake is short and while it takes him a minute to walk around the water and reach the statue, taking the baby monitor out and hiding it in the tall bush of roses behind the benches proves to be a piece of cake. All he needs now is a nearby spot to supervise the monitor from and make sure no one removes it before his dad and Buck arrive. That's not hard either, there are enough trees scattered across the adjacent grass lawns that anyone walking down either of the paths leading to the benches wouldn't pay attention to. Chris goes to sit down at the feet of one. 

It's why he chose this park for the meeting, because Dad, Buck and he have had so many picnics here, that he was familiar with the area enough for this plan. All the nice memories they had here were just a perk. 

The closer seven o'clock gets, the harder it is to wait. A million scenarios are running through his head about how this could go down. Almost all of them end in disappointment, but the worst ones are disastrous. Because that's right, this is what Chris has been ignoring all along: his dad and Buck are idiots and they're capable of making things worse instead of better. They could get so awkward about this with each other that they would stop interacting altogether. Christopher's heartbeat increases at the thought that he might have brought misery on all three of them. 

Seven comes and passes, but several minutes later, Buck shows up, walking slowly towards the benches. He's dressed nicely, but not in his best clothes. He's not here to impress anyone. 

Before he reaches the statue, Dad appears on the other path and when he does, they both stop. Then he starts advancing again and a beat later, so does Buck. 

They meet at the juncture between the trails, right by the benches. They don't sit down, but they stand close enough to the monitor that Chris can hear them and pick up most of their actions. 

"Hey, ummm," Buck starts, "I'm... what are you doing here?" 

Dad exhales with a puff. "Don't tell me that you got a letter inviting you here, too?" 

Buck looks taken aback. "I did. Wait, did you..." 

"Chris. It has to be, he asked me to help him write a letter a few months ago. Did he ask you to do that, too?" 

Buck shakes his head. "He did. He pranked us, didn't he?" 

Dad laughs. "Oh yeah, he did." 

"We're going to have to think of something really good to get him back." 

"Definitely." 

Christopher's hope is gone. Yes, obviously those two were going to figure out that he orchestrated the whole thing, but they were supposed to talk first, not dismiss the content of the letters by assuming this was just a prank. 

Buck shifts his weight and taps his fingers against his thigh. "What were you, ummmm... the letter that you got..." 

"That you wrote?" 

"Yes. What were you going to reply to it?" 

"I was coming here to say 'no' to the letter writer." 

"Oh. Of course," Buck replies, gesturing with his hand at Dad. "Because you're not ready yet." 

"Mmm hmm." 

"Yeah, I'm... I'm not ready either. I mean, that whole stuff with my family and..." he wanders off. 

"Uh huh. Of course! That was a lot to deal with. Is, sorry! It still is. Sure, you shouldn't be dating anyone at a time like this." 

"Yep." Buck nods. 

Dad folds his arms across his chest and stares down at them. Buck shoves his hands in his pockets and flushes his arms against the sides of his body. 

If Chris could reach through the monitor, he'd shake them both up. 

But then, to his surprise, the tense way Buck is holding his body drops. He takes the letter he got out of his jacket's pocket and starts to read the opening passage. 

" _Mi corazon, for a while now I've been wanting to tell you how beautiful you are to me. I don't just mean your looks. I love the way you care about things. It truly is your heart that captivates me and makes me want to share everything that matters with you._ " 

Dad coughs awkwardly. 

Buck lifts his eyes from the letter. "I really liked this, you know. I felt bad that I was going to say 'no' to whoever wrote this." 

"Right," Dad nods. "But you had to. It's not the right time." 

"Noooo." Somehow, the prolonging of the 'o' makes Buck's agreement far less convincing. 

Dad pulls out his own letter from his back pocket. 

" _I can't tell you enough how much I like you. You make every day better. I'm happier when I get to spend time with you. I think you are, too._ " 

He pauses and looks up. "For the record... I am." 

Buck takes a deep breath, folding the paper in his hands. "I felt so bad that I was coming here to reject someone who wrote out exactly what I want. But I couldn't say 'yes'. Not when I already share everything that matters... with you. We do, don't we?" 

Dad tilts his head sideways. "Almost everything." His tone is humorous. Why is he joking at a time like this? 

"When I was helping Christopher write his letter and searching for the right words, I kept thinking about us. About what I would say to you if I could." Buck holds up the folded paper. "Were you?" 

Chris is holding his breath. The way he's crossing his fingers feels a lot like prayer. 

Dad shakes his head. "To be honest with you, I don't know what I was thinking about when I was writing that. Probably Chris and how he's growing up so fast..." Buck's hand holding the letter drops and despite not leaving, he looks away. "But you were the person I was thinking of when I read this letter," Dad gestures with the hand gripping it. Buck slowly shifts his head back and gazes at it. "I felt guilty when you came over after that. For wishing it would have been from you when I didn't have that right. I was coming here to say 'no' because I thought it was from someone else." 

Buck is still staring, motionless. 

Christopher would pay a lot of money for them to make things easier on themselves and on him. He's sitting on the ground, it's started being uncomfortable. What are they still waiting for? They've basically admitted they feel the same way. Isn't that enough? 

It takes a moment more, but then Dad takes the first step. Or maybe it's Buck, once they've finally started moving, it's hard to be sure when Chris is looking closely, going back and forth between the two. They eliminate the small distance between them and after another still second, their arms slip around each other. Their heads shift within the hug, first tucked into one another's neck and next pulling back and connecting. It looks awkward to Christopher for an instant, but they're kissing. Like couples do. 

He wants to scream with joy, but that probably wouldn't be very wise. Instead he settles for watching the swan-shaped boats sailing on the lake and waiting for the adults to stop kissing. It doesn't strike him as a particularly interesting activity, but Buck and Dad are sure taking their time. 

When they part, Chris hears them laughing at each other and they sound so happy. He turns back and watches them. 

"Wait, you don't think..." Buck's voice is suspicious. 

"What?" 

"That maybe this wasn't a prank?" 

"But if this wasn't a prank... God, Chris set us up, didn't he?" 

"Your son is kind of a genius, you said so yourself." 

"In that case..." Dad steps back and starts turning around, calling out, "Christopher!" 

Buck joins in and almost directly following that, they spot Chris, who's getting on his knees and reaching for his crutches to help himself stand up, using them for leverage. By the time Dad and Buck get to him, he's up on his legs and happy to be changing positions. 

"You, young man!" his father goes off. "You have some explaining to do, lying to us like that, telling us you had a crush..." 

Chris chuckles. "I was talking about _a_ crush. I never said it was mine." 

Buck frowns. "I think you're raising a lawyer." 

Dad looks up at him and after a beat, replies, "I think we are." 

The way they look at each other and smile? Operation complete. And so very worth it. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to send me feedback, prompts, questions, anything at [my Tumblr](https://matan4il.tumblr.com/)! And thank you in advance for any kudos, comments, etc. It's all so very appreciated and helps more than you know! <33333


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